Tubular-spoked wheel



Wa E. WILUAMS. TUBULH SPOKE WHEEL. fwruclmon min :UNE Ha, 192|.

Patented Mm'. 7, 1922. ou d) ff/f' N C UNITED STATES PATENT GlirflCE.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

TUBU Lan-senken WHEEL.

Application tiled June 16, 1921.

My invention relates to wheels that have.

their spokes made out of metal tubes and the object of the invention is to providea wheel that may be cheaply made and arrive at a maximum strength of the parts and furnish a durable wheel for service.

Reference will be had lo the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is an elevation of part of the Wheel.

Figure 2 is a radial section in the axis of a spoke.

Figure 3 is a hub detail.

Figure 4 is a rim detail showing a inodified construction.

In the drawing 1 indicates the hub of an ordinary automobile wheel, the rear hub being indicated in Figures 1 and 2, and 2 indicates the hub for the front wheel 3 the ordinary brake drum, 4 an ordinary elincher demountable rim, and 5 a steel felloe more or less analogous to the steel felloes in common use with wooden spoke wheels. As with wood wheels, modifications in the wa)v of securing the rim to the felloe ma) be made. i

In this case the demountable rim 4 is held in place on the steel felloe 5 by means of a series of clips 6 secured by bolts 7, but as before stated other fastening means may be employed.

The tubular Spokes of this wheel are indicated by 8 and are made of tubing of any suitable material. but I prefer to use what is known as seamless or welded tubing.

Previous to the assembly of the tubes s into the wheel the ends that go into the hub are swagcd down or tapered, haring,r their inner ends 9 considerably smaller in diameter where they bear in the central portion of the hub than the body of the tube where it fits into the outer margin of the hub at 10. The swaging down or tapering down of these ends of the tube results iu thickening the Wall of the tube as indicated by the thickened zone ll. Of course. this thirkening increases as the diameter de` creuses. The outer or felloe end 12 ol' each tube or spoke is swaged to fit a rounded lSpecication of Letters Patent.

Patented Har-"J, smal No. 473,027.

seat 13 in the felloe, the. tubrl-eing ther-ei 5 compressed and the metal ai being necessarily thickened in the open-.noie

I may, when desired, perioratc the bottin l of these sockets lil in the steel felice 1 n dicated by Figure el and then allow tin swaged end of the talmlar spokes to protru 1- through this socket 15 and be swaged e' e on the ends as indicated b v M i1: lrligure whereinv the union resists:` both tension and compression strains. In the manufacture ot these Wheels the first steps are to forni the spokes out of the tubing with the .sw-aged ends as described and prepare the hubs, hav ing a finished bearingr in the region l5 and 1G where the spokes fit into the hub. These bearings 15 and il. i n :o make with parallel walls to facilitate 'the manufacture, so that an ordinary drill or a rixnnler of a straight pattern ma),Y be run into the hub cavities and making them exactly true for the main body of the spoke at 1U and the smaller end 9, so that tight tits at these two points will be arrived at. These bearing seats 15 and 16 in the hub are malle a litt-le smaller than the tubular spoke ends and the spokes which have iii-bent terminal flanges, are pressed forcibl)r into their seats l5, 16 and against the bottoms of the latter.

l* or convenience in washing and theapf pear-ance of the wheel the margins of the hub sockets 'are rounded off as is indicated by l?, leaving the little rounded valleys 18 between the several spokes. After the spokes are assembled in the hub, furnishing as it were wheel spiders, the steel felice 1s Contrat-ted on to the. ends of the spokes in a manner that has bceii heretofore practiced in various ways in the manufact-ure and the tightenin up of wheel ends and felloes on to the spo e ends.

prefer to press home each individual spoke in its ri rhtposition before applying the felloe, but I ma).- malte the felloe larger, place the spokes in the proper lines, and then upset.' the metal of the felloe and force all the spokes home sinniltaneously.

The front wheel hub :connection is shown in Figure 2l and in thi-= instance the spoke supporting part of the hub is composed of the front hub flange tti and the rear hub flange 2l! which are connected across between the spoke openings in the valleys 1S aspreviously mentioned and thusthere are no bolted on flanges' of univ type.

ln the ase ot the rear wheel, however,

where lthe brake drum is applied to the hub,

a small flange 21 seats this brake drum, and

the hub is provided with a front flange 22 only which may as desired be stiened across by transverse ribs indicated by dotted lines 23 in Figure l and there is provided the annular finished flange 24 against which the brake drum is clamped by a series of bolts 25 having the rounded heads 26 on the outer face of the Wheel.

I may as desired, use substantially the same Feature ot' hub casting for the front wheel as relates to the spoke seats as I do for the rear wheel and then cover up the space in the front Wheel with a separate ring orthin pressed metal instead of the brake drum covering it as is the case where the brake drum is used and I have indicated by 2T the position, of this thin pressed metal, in dotted lines in Figure 2.

This method of making the hub socket section of the hubs leavingi open the side wall as shown covered by the brake drum or by the piece 27, permits a. little easier niethod of supporting the cores for casting the spoke sockets than is the case with the structure shown in Figure 3, as in Figure 3 thecore prints must stick out through the `spoke socket holes while with the hub as shown in Figure 2 the cores may be supported from the side or the cavity covered `by the brake drum or plate 27 and the spoke cavity which is to be machine finished, may be left, solid and4 drilled out otI the solid, which may be referred by some 'manufacturers as a. met od of doing the work.

In swaging dqwn the ends of the tubes to form the spoke ends as described` I prefer to do this work when the metal of the tubing is heated, yet with certain qualities of metal this swaging operation may be done when the metal is cold.

I am advised that heretofore lin wheels of this type, securing *he spokes in the hub has required undue expense, for example, in adding part-s, in forming peculiar spoke ends, and in welding and riveting, but when my methods are used 'a wheel of this type competes in low cost. weight and strength with ordinary wheels of an type.

The arrangement of the iiiub sockets for the spokes having the finished bearing seats i5 and 16 with clearance' spaces between these seats insures that the Spokes will take the skid shock loads at the points intended and with no uncertainty as to this feature bein occasioned by a lack of attention or careiizssness of the fitting of the parts.

l. A tubular spoke having its end portion swaged to tapered form with the walls of the tapered portion increasing in thickness ns the diameter decreases.

2. The combination with a hub body hav- 65 ing peripheral spoke sockets materially smaller than the body of the spokes, of spokes swaged to form portions tapering toward the spoke ends and having the converging walls thickened as the diameter decreases, said portions being primarily slightly larger than the sockets but forced into the same.

3. In a wheel of the class described, a tubular spoke having a tapered end and secured in the hub by being pressed radially into seats adapted to receive the tapered ends; in combination with a felloe contracted on to the ends of the tubular spokes.

4. In a wheel of the class described, a tubular spoke having a tapered end and secured in the hub by being pressed radially into seats adapted to receive the tapered ends; in combination with a felloe contracted on to the ends of the tubular spokes, with an initial tension in the felloe exert ing compression on the ends of the spokes in the normal assembly.

5. In n, wheel of the class described, a steel felloe substantially in channel form having radially embossed pockets in the web of the channel; in combination with tnbular spokes having contracted ends adapted to seat in the pockets of the felloe and said spokes suitably secured into the hub.

(5. In a wheel of the class described, a steel t'elloe having the form of an outwardly open channel provided with a series of spoke end pockets embossed in the web of the channel and with a small perforation in the deepest portion in the pocket; in combination with tubular spokes having contracted ends shaped to be seated in the pockets of the steel felloe and with the ends of the conti-acted ends of the spokes swaged over, making a fastening of the spoke ends into the pockets of the felloe.

7. In a wheel of the class described, a hub having spoke sockets and each socket provided With an outer bearing and an inner bearing for a Spoke end and the inner bearing being smaller in diameter than the outer bearing, with clearance spaces in between the bearings. I

8. In a wheel'of the class described, a hub having spoke sockets and each socket provided with an outer bearing and an inner bearing for a spoke end, the inner bearing being smaller in diameter than the outer bearing, and the walls of these bearings be ing substantially parallel with the axis of the spoke.

9. In a wheel of the class bular spokes having ta where they fit into the ub, hub sockets in the hub adapted to receive the ends of the said spokes and having bearings at the outer margin of the hub sockets and on the inner ends of the hub sockets with clearancaV spaces between the two bearing surfaces in a manner that the spoke is engaged described, tured circular ends nt the inncl end of the spoke and al thv onlmund of tho huh socket, only.

10. hnh having sockets adapted to hohl apolios tirniinully nml :it Sonie ilistmnri from their mills whilv lcuring thi` inici'- nn'iliziiv porliom frm'` :unl lmrin;r plutolloswl :ipvrtnros to tho spam' hctwoun lln` Ivg-ions whorc tlnl hpokes :Irv hohl.

ll. ln :l wheel of thc vluss ilvscrihml. llni'olnhinntion with n spoke lni\'in; r :l tain-rml inner-end portion. of u hnh lin\in;r corri-- sponiling pvriplwrnl sovlwls vm'rolin;r thv pokes nl their mills nl bonnI :listzlnic thvrih l'roln :unl lartm'nlly open. norinully :1L point hvtwvun the' onvirvlin r lgortiions, :unl :i Inomln-r closing thc hltcrn openings.

1L. In a wheel of the class described, u muml fullou substantially channel shaped in rross `wriion. n tiril carrying rim secured lo thv sniil l'vllov in iloinonntuhle fashion, tnhnlnr spokvs upon which thc Suid fclloe is lnonntml hy rz linl ooinpression upon the mills ol' thex spokes. said npokcs having their innur i-ncls rigidly hohl hy n suitable huh.

Signwl :it (`hii-n ro, in the county of Cook unil Sinn ol' lllinois.1liis 13th luy of June, lll. y

WILLIAM ERASTUS WlLLlAMS.

\\'iincssus l. .l. BERNHARD, l", M. Zonini. 

